PALO ALTO, Calif. -After a delayed start, freshmen Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant captured three of four points to help the No. 26 Texas A&M men’s tennis team upset No. 10 and host school Stanford, 4-0. The Aggies advance to the championship match against No. 27 San Diego tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. (CT) at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in Palo Alto, Calif.. Texas A&M improves to 3-0 on the year while Stanford falls to 1-1.
“The guys really competed very well tonight,” said Texas A&M Head Coach Steve Denton. “We had a delay due to weather but they came out ready to play. This is an exciting win for this young team, but we have to regroup and get ready to play another excellent team in San Diego tomorrow for the right to go to Seattle. That was our goal when we left Aggieland was to get to Seattle and that takes winning two matches.”
Texas A&M claimed the doubles point with wins from the tandems of Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant as well as sophomore Jackson Withrow and junior Junior Ore. The No. 6 ranked duo of Adams and Vinsant, playing from the No. 2 position, defeated Denis Lin and Daniel Ho, 8-5, to improve to 3-0 on the spring and 14-4 overall. Withrow and Ore, playing from the No. 1 spot, rallied by winning five consecutive games to defeat John Morrissey and Matt Kandath, 8-6, to clinch the point and improve their record to 2-0 on the young season.
“We were down a break at the No. 1 doubles late and were able to come back and take the doubles point and with a young team a fast start is crucial. I thought we needed a little cushion,” said Denton.
In singles, Jackson Withrow wasted no time in claiming the first point by defeating Robert Stineman 6-0, 6-1. Shortly after, Shane Vinsant pushed the Aggie lead to 3-0 after downing Maciek Romanowicz 6-4, 6-3. Finally, Harrison Adams clinched the match in dramatic fashion by overwhelming Nolan Paige, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).
“We talked about the importance of taking the first sets in singles and we won five of the first sets.
Jackson (Withrow) played the best that we have seen him play against a quality opponent in Stineman and then to have our two freshmen step up and play well was very encouraging. Shane (Vinsant) was able to get a straight sets win and then Harry (Harrison Adams) was able to clinch the match with a great battle in the second set winning the tiebreaker.”
Tomorrow’s action can be found at http://streamingtennis.com/index.php/stanford1.
No. 26 Texas A&M def. No. 10 Stanford, 4-0
Singles
No. 1 – (No. 103) Jeremy Efferding, A&M vs. (#39) John Morrissey, STAN – 6-4, 4-5
No. 2 – Junior Ore, A&M vs. Matt Kandath, STAN – 4-6, 6-2, 2-0
*No. 3 – Harrison Adams, A&M def. Nolan Paige, STAN – 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
No. 4 – Shane Vinsant, A&M def. Maciek Romanowicz, STAN – 6-4, 6-3
No. 5 – Jackson Withrow, A&M def. Robert Stineman, STAN – 6-0, 6-1
No. 6 – (No. 87) Jordan Szabo, A&M vs. Anthony Tsokikov, STAN – 2-6, 6-4, 2-1
Doubles
No. 1 – Withrow/Ore, A&M def. Morrissey/Kandath, STAN – 8-6
No. 2 – (No. 6) Adams/Vinsant, A&M def. Daniel Ho/Denis Lin, STAN – 8-5
No. 3 – Szabo/Efferding, A&M vs. Romanowicz/Stineman, STAN – 7-6
Order of Finish: Doubles 2, 1, Singles 5, 4, 3
Texas A&M (3-0), Stanford (1-1)
*Clinched the match
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics